Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts” against Palestinians.
Abbas was speaking at a press conference in Berlin alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz who was visibly disturbed by the comment.
Abbas’ statement came in response to a question about the anniversary of the Munich massacre that took lives of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The attack carried out by the Palestinian militant group Black September was linked to Abbas’ political party Fatah.
“If you want to go over the past, go ahead,” Abbas replied to reporters in Arabic.
“I have 50 slaughters that Israel committed…50 massacres, 50 slaughters…50 Holocausts,” he went on saying the last word in English.
The German chancellor frowned at Abbas’ words but didn’t immediately respond to them, which sparked criticism among his political opponents and in German media.
In a statement later published by BILD, Scholz said that for Germans “any revitalization of the Holocaust is unbearable and unacceptable.”
On Wednesday, Scholz tweeted that he was “disgusted” by Abbas’s “outrageous remarks.”
Earlier during the conference Scholz said that using the word “apartheid” to describe Israeli-Palestinian relations wasn’t correct.
Source: Agenices
